1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to an improved data processing system, and in particular to a method and system for enhanced communication by a user of a data processing system. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a method and system for enhanced communication by a user of a data processing system, wherein outgoing communication is marked with preselected characteristics.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic document transfer and message communication such as electronic mail, are well known in the art. With the fast evolving global electronic network following the opening up of world-wide communication channels such as the Internet or World Wide Web, transmission of data and non-data communication via electronic means on a data processing system network is becoming more and more common.
E-mail communication makes up a significant and fast growing portion of the communications environment which exists on the Internet. More and more users globally are communicating via e-mail which is considerably cheaper than regular telephone network or other related communication systems. Similarly, file and document transfer via file transfer protocol (FTP) is becoming increasingly popular.
Users of the Internet are provided with a user address which serves as an electronic mail box. A user is able to create an electronic communication and transmit it to one or more other users via their respective user address. Messages are thus capable of being transmitted to a plurality of recipients, simultaneously. This is usually accomplished when the sender or originator of the communication enters the respective addresses of each desired recipient in the xe2x80x9caddressingxe2x80x9d location of the software being utilized to transmit the document.
FIG. 1 depicts a prior art representation of a graphical user interface (GUI) 101 of Lotus Notes program (Lotus Notes is a Trademark of International Business Machines, Inc. (IBM) assignee of the present invention). Lotus Notes GUI 101 consists of pull down menu buttons 103A, menu bars 103B, and a visual display area 105. Within visual display area 105, is depicted a electronic communication comprising of an addressing area (xe2x80x9cToxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cccxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cbcxe2x80x9d, and xe2x80x9csubjectxe2x80x9d) 107, a security area 108 and a level of importance selection area 109. Below these is the text of message 111.
In today""s electronic mail environments, when a user creates a note to be sent to one or more recipients, he usually is given an option to select the communication as belonging to a certain level of xe2x80x9cimportancexe2x80x9d. For instance, Lotus Notes offers three choices: xe2x80x9cUrgentxe2x80x9d 110A, xe2x80x9cNormalxe2x80x9d 110B, and xe2x80x9cFYIxe2x80x9d 110C. The assignment selected is applied to all recipients of the note, regardless of classification (xe2x80x9cToxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cccxe2x80x9d, or xe2x80x9cbccxe2x80x9d).
A note sender might very well want to assign different importance levels to different recipients. For instance, one might want a note to be of xe2x80x9cUrgentxe2x80x9d importance to one set of recipients, but xe2x80x9cNormalxe2x80x9d to and xe2x80x9cFYIxe2x80x9d to yet another subset.
Currently, to assign different levels of importance to subgroups of recipients, the sender must send out the same document more than oncexe2x80x94each time, to the recipients identified for the importance level desired. For example, the sender sends a note first to Sam and Mary at importance xe2x80x9cUrgentxe2x80x9d, then sends the same note out to Joe and Jill at importance xe2x80x9cNormalxe2x80x9d. There is no simple way of doing this today.
It would therefore be desirable to have a method and system for individually assigning a level of importance to each recipient of an electronic document. It would be further desirable to have a method for assigning particularized characteristics to each of a plurality of recipients of an electronic communication.
It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide an improved data processing system.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and system for enhanced communication by a user of a data processing system.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method and system for enhanced communication by a user of a data processing system wherein outgoing communication is marked with preselected characteristics.
The foregoing objects are achieved as is now described. A method is disclosed for distinguishing recipients of electronic communication on a data processing system utilizing the recipient""s electronic addresses. Electronic communication is first addressed to at least two recipients with corresponding recipient addresses. Then specific characteristics, from among a plurality of characteristics, are linked to one or more of the recipient addresses, wherein the characteristic serves to distinguish the recipient""s communication from the communication of other recipients.
In the preferred embodiment, implemented in an e-mail environment, linking the characteristics is completed by first selecting one or more recipient e-mail addresses, then choosing the characteristic desired to be linked to the e-mail communication of the recipient. The chosen characteristic is linked with the e-mail communication being sent via the recipient""s address. When the communication is sent, the recipient receives his communication along with the characteristics assigned, to it.
The above as well as additional objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed written description.